Books & TV for the long nights
02 Wednesday Oct 2024
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BOOKS & TV FOR THE LONG NIGHTS
It’s scary how many books there are out there. So many good books to read – and bad. How do you choose? Actually, do email me and tell me how you choose. I’d be interested. I might even post some of the best answers I receive.
Meanwhile, I’ve started going back to some of the ‘classics’ that I missed. I don’t necessarily mean that kind of classics. Not Dickens or Austen. But the titles I’ve always known about but somehow never quite got round to. And some my son left on his shelf. Old and new.
Here’s my regular round-up of some of the better books I’ve opened over the last few months. There are some surprises too.
Fancy getting off with a brainwashed murderer?
First up is the book of a movie. John Frankenheimer’s 1962 film of The Manchurian Candidate is one of the greats. (The 2004 remake, a bit meh!) But nowadays not many read the original novel by Richard Condon. Turns out they’re missing a treat.
Published in 1959, this conspiracy thriller is still fresh and, well, thrilling. The story centres on Korean war-hero Raymond Shaw. Captured during the war with his troop, the son of a top politician, his men adulate him. What nobody knows is that he’s no hero at all. His men have been brainwashed by Chinese and Soviet intelligence to believe he saved their lives.
In reality, Shaw is a walking assassination machine – brainwashed into obeying orders to kill.
The book barrels along, but not without taking in a vicious satirical look at American politics. The writing is shockingly dangerous and up-to-date. And I had to check the pub date at times, to remind myself that at least one of the politicians wasn’t based on a certain orange-hued Republican candidate today.
Terrorist cover-up or good yarn?
To more recent conspiracies: my son’s bookshelf yields Nelson DeMille’s Night Fall (2004), third in DeMille’s John Corey series. Night Fall occupies itself with an alleged US government plot to cover up the reasons for the (real) crash of TWA flight 800, which broke up in mid-air above Long Island in 1996.
At the time, witnesses said they saw a streak of light, which could have been a missile. Investigators decided they were mistaken. In the novel, Corey’s wife, a detective on the original investigation spurs him into digging up new evidence that she’s not been allowed to search out.
It’s a gripping take on a real-life event which builds in menace as we begin to realise what’s going to happen next. The message is clear: covering up one terrorist attack only leaves you open to something much worse. Of course it’s fiction… or is it?
Lawyer as hero
A new angle on legal thrillers comes from barrister turned author Simon Michael. His series hero, Charles Holborne, is an up-and-coming lawyer who’s plunged despite himself into the dark and dangerous world of 1960s London crime.
In The Brief – the first of his Charles Holborne series – Holborne is finding it difficult to progress at the bar, largely because of prejudice against his rough upbringing in the Jewish East End. But after a shocking murder, he finds he’s the prime suspect and goes on the run. It’s not long before he comes face to face with the vicious Kray Twins, whose gang dominated the London underworld.
If you like a rollicking roller-coaster ride through the world of crime and lawyers, this one’s for you. And the good news is that there are currently eight more in the series, so far.
The darker side of life
Staying with Jewish themes, this summer I plucked up the courage to read John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Acclaimed, filmed, acclaimed again, his novel had never reached my TBR list. Maybe because I tend to be wary of Holocaust novels. Not for any concern over quality. More that they just feel too close to home.
I finally bit the bullet. If I say it’s not an easy read, that’s no reflection on the writing, the characters, or the pace of the book. At the centre is nine-year-old Bruno, upset at having to move from his comfortable Berlin home to the back of beyond, leaving all his friends behind. Out of the window he can see people behind barbed wire who he’s sure are having a better time than he is. Then through the wire he meets Shmuel, a boy of roughly his own age, and a terrible clock begins to tick.
I’m glad I finally decided to read it. It is, of course, moving, but manages to be so without schmaltz or melodrama. And it’s not just about the past. One of its underlying themes, that our actions end up rebounding tragically on the next generation, has a striking relevance to the way humanity lives today.
Vicious Tokyo
This month’s list ends with a TV show like few others. If you haven’t yet seen series one and two of Tokyo Vice, you’re in for a treat. Based very loosely on a real-life story, the series tells of how US journalist Jake Adelstein landed a crime-writing job on a top Japanese newspaper and found himself deeply entrenched in the savage world of the Yakuza gangs.
The episodes are cleverly written. The story gripping. The filming dazzlingly stylish. The characters warmly engaging, even the nastiest.
You find yourself rooting not only for Adelstein as he tries to bring down the bad guys and negotiate his own love life. But also caring deeply for a young up-and-coming Yakuza, an American bar hostess trying to set up her own club and a hard-bitten cop, as well as Adelstein’s long-suffering journalist colleagues.
Stream or buy it if you can.
That’s just the start. Watch out for more books, TV and films in the next few months. Tough, heart-warming or just entertaining, to keep you going through the season to come.
So, what are you reading now? And how did you choose it?
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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
